It was not something unexpected from the rejuvenated men of Indian cricket. After a lackluster performance at Hyderabad, clinical would be the best word to describe their efforts at Bangalore. The Indians were all over South Africa right from the first over and with some extremely mature heads over their shoulders, pouched the 2nd ODI at Bangalore with considerable ease.

For this little snippet, I would like to draw a parallel between English soccer giants Manchester United and the Indian team. Any team maintaining a certain level of consistency, gets into a mode of invincibility. It was the Argentine David Nalbandian today, who got through Roger Federer to end his 35 match streak at Shanghai. Other notable expert streak-enders can be the Manchester United team, who saw through the epic 49-matches unbeaten run of Arsenal in 2004, and yet again brought an end to the 41 match-unbeaten league run of Chelsea on 6th November in 2005. So where does India fit in amongst all these great teams and individuals ? To put the records straight, India were instrumental in stopping Australia from a huge 16 match winning streak in 2001 at Kolkata. Here they are again, where the spirited Men-in-Blue caught South Africa short of their record equaling effort of 21 (Australia - streak ended by West Indies in 2003). A fine effort to highlight the relativity of invincibility of a sporting side. But, as far as the Indians are concerned, they need to put together a streak of wins themselves to ensure that they surely are among the world's best and serious contenders for the title in 2007.